Plattsburgh Marina area: an almost perfect setting for an evening walk.Visual: painterly.Aural: quiet.Olfactory: I'm gonna hurl.Nothing adds to an evening walk more than the sewage treatment plant fugging the air with its excremental emanations.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

(C) 2016 Luke T. BushWhat is the American form of government?Did you answer "democracy?" Wrong. When you say the Pledge of Allegiance do you pledge yourself to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Democracy for which it stands?Some argue that it's too simplistic to call our form of government a republic. They use the qualifying terminology "representative democracy" as opposed to "pure democracy."But most citizens think that they live in a pure democracy where one person equals one vote, the popular vote deciding the outcome.Well, if this country does have a popular vote democracy why did presidential candidate Al Gore lose in 2000 even though he had about 540,000 more votes than Dubya? There have been four presidential elections where the candidate who won the popular vote still lost the election. How can this be? Maybe you should take a class at the Electoral College. If you think superdelegates in the Democratic Party are undemocratic then you should be aware of unpledged electors. In a presidential race you're not directly voting for your chosen candidate, you're voting for an elector who may or may not be pledged to your candidate.Does this sound like a rigged system?

Weighted voting formulae. Simple, eh?

Recently a businessman known for promoting new positive ideas tried to win the nomination of his party. The earnest candidate contacted various party officials to get information about the process. No one told him about weighted voting, that some party members had more voting power. This crucial detail blindsided the businessman. Once again an office seeker could win the popular vote but still lose. One person = one vote? Forget it.Weighted voting means that those who know how to play the game can stay in power, some of them maintaining the status quo for their benefit. Dead weight.And people wonder why I don't vote. They can't believe that under this so-called democracy their vote in some situations counts for dog squat.As George Carlin observed: "You voted? You're part of the problem."

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY - June 7, 2016According to an article at the Press-Republican website (http://bit.ly/1rcE1XY) the official investigation into the deadly fire at 220 Margaret Street has concluded the cause is undetermined. At the same time the Plattsburgh City police chief says nothing was found that points to the fire being suspicious in nature.Unless there's a key detail missing from the article I have a difficult time understanding why the fire was determined to be non-suspicious in origin. If the cause is undetermined -- evidence was destroyed in the fire -- then how could anyone really know it was or wasn't suspicious in nature? Could someone explain this to me?